Blogging for Business

More and more people, especially the young, search for information on line. A comprehensive digital information strategy is essential for sustaining business success.

A blog is your personal newspaper with articles and editorials telling your story in your words. Building a blog following will move your business up on the web search engines.

The key to being a successful blogger is to share valuable insight and information to the world.  You want to be an expert in your field and become a trusted source of information for your customers.  Your website, blog and the social media platforms join together and become the face of your business. The result of utilizing all of these platforms together is higher trust, awareness Blogging for Businessand better brand awareness.  A good blog strategy will have a positive effect on your business relationships.

Plan your blog before you publish it. Start with defining clear goals for your blog, which can be used to measure your success. Write down your business goals in a short paragraph form, then add 5 or 6 key points for how your new blog will tie into the overall goals of your business.  Your blog goals should line up with the business purpose of the company.

The best laid plan starts with a little brainstorming. Ask yourself questions like (1) what does a visitor want to learn from us? (2) What can we learn from our customers? (3) How can we establish ourselves as leaders in our field? The goals you define will be as unique as your business.

The Internet is filled with blogs, so merely publishing a blog and expecting it to bring in readers is unrealistic.  You have to announce your blog to the world by listing it in your company newsletter; posting it on your company Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages; placing a link on your website; and listing the blog address in other company publications. You want to build immediate interest.

Internet search engines like blogs, because the content is continually being refreshed.  It takes time to establish a blog on the Internet. To succeed, new blog posts need to appear regularly.  A blog can build more traffic to your website and move your company name higher on the search engine hit list, but only with regular posts of new content. It requires a commitment.

Determine who the content creator is going to be on your blog; this would be the person who answers for its content.  Always make sure you have an editor to verify that the post is in-line with the blog goals (determined in the planning phase) and that the content is well written.  Your blog should include links, photos and other media to generate more interest.

There are many blog hosting solutions, but a self-hosted solution is preferred.  WordPress is our choice for blogging and web-publishing.  It is simple and easy to use; ideal for blogs and small-medium size websites.  After the initial blog setup, users will be able to easily add content. You will want to measure your return on investment by knowing how many people are reading your blog. Monitoring ROI is imperative for every small-to-medium business and the content you post can provide useful measures.

GBS can help get you started.  We can (1) host your blog, (2) create graphics, (3) setup your blog, (4) help you publish your 1stpost, and (5) train you how to measure the return on investment. We can even provide ongoing services and publish your blog for you at regular intervals.

To learn more about using blogging to tell your story, contact us. It costs nothing to ask.